 |
A former South Florida lawyer has pleaded guilty to stealing $300,000 from a client, and she said she lost the money in an e-mail scam.
Knovack Jones, a lawyer for nearly 25 years and a former prosecutor, is accused of stealing the inheritance of the English family. Jones was the lawyer for the estate of Pauline English, a nurse who died in 2001, leaving an estate of nearly $400,000.About $300,000 of that inheritance is now gone. Jones testified that the money was funneled into a variation on the Nigerian e-mail scams.
Jones, who has since been disbarred, pleaded guilty to one count of grand theft and one count of forgery. Prosecutors are asking that Jones be sentenced to nine years in prison.
"I'm here to humbly ask the court's mercy," Jones said in court on Monday.
Jones said a Nigerian doctor contacted her in 2001.
"He had a contract with the government of $38.6 million, and he needed my participation," Jones said.
